Monday, September 28, 2009

ACCESSORY APARTMENTS: IS SHERBORN TOO RESTRICTIVE?

Sherborn’s Zoning Bylaw currently has a very limited provision for accessory apartments. In essence, they are allowed only to house up to three persons related by blood, adoption or marriage or by up to two domestic employees of the family residing in the main part of the dwelling. Rent is not allowed for such units. There are various other restrictions that include limiting the area to the greater of 30% of the gross floor area of the dwelling or 800 square feet; the design must be such that the facilities of the accessory apartment can be readily removed or reintegrated into the main dwelling, and approval in the form of a special permit from the Board of Appeals must be obtained.

There is one other option that does allow the collection of rent: if the accessory apartment qualifies as a “Low or Moderate Income Unit” under state law. Among other requirements is that the unit must be fairly available to all eligible persons, and this usually means they must be selected by a lottery. In this situation the owner is not able to select the tenant. Other requirements are similar to those presented above but the unit size is allowed to be as large as 1200 square feet. This bylaw was adopted in 1991 and no one has ever taken advantage of it.

There has been some discussion that the accessory apartment requirements may be too restrictive and should be loosened somewhat to allow occupation by non-relatives and to charge rent for such apartments. One argument in favor of this position is that many older persons who have lived in Sherborn for many years would like to stay in town but are not comfortable in their large houses due to property taxes, maintenance issues or other reasons. An accessory apartment would provide some income and would also provide another person in the house who might be available to assist with household tasks or in the event of an emergency.

On the other hand, there is concern that allowing accessory apartments could change the character of Sherborn by converting single family homes to “duplexes.” Also, creating additional housing units could result in more school children, thus increasing costs to the Town.

Of course, the impacts depend to a large extent on how an accessory apartment bylaw were structured. If allowed only by special permit, the Town would retain much control. Also, the bylaw could specify maximum size of the unit, require that the single family character of the residence not be altered, and it could even limit the total number of such units that could be created.

It should be noted many similar towns, including Dover, Carlisle, Lincoln, Weston and Wayland all allow accessory apartments. Their restrictions differ, but they all allow occupancy by non-relatives as well as the collection of rent.